Video thumbnails are used to quickly represent content in a video file by mousing over a media file. These video thumbnails can greatly increase the probability of user activation of a particular media file as well as user interest, potentially keeping a user at a site longer.
Content providers, such as YouTube, auto-generate a set of video thumbnails for any uploaded video. Different sites linking to video files such as those hosted on YouTube, typically present users with this default set of auto-generated thumbnails. The default thumbnails, however, are oftentimes not optimal for a given audience and/or for the content of the video, and thus have a limited usefulness in piquing viewer interest.
Therefore, techniques for guiding video thumbnail selection based on more user-specific preferences, and thereby increasing user traffic for specific content would be desirable.